A Night to Remember
by Alixtii
Summary: Buffy's daughter goes to her high school prom--but only one of the vampires who shows up has an invitation.
1. Chapter 1

A Night to Remember - Part 1

If there's anywhere Xander never thought he'd be, it's on a plane, next to a vampire who's either 15 or 800 depending on how you count, headed towards a Hellmouth. Not even just a Hellmouth, but a high school on top of a Hellmouth--shades of Sunnydale all over again.

The fact that he's traveling to this school in order to attend his wife's high school prom makes it, if anything, even stranger. First because the fact he has a wife and is married is something which sends his mind reeling. The memories of his marriage and honeymoon are vivid in his mind (even without a Dark God possessing him and using him and his wife as vessels to take over the world he suspects that still would be the case) and the gold wedding band on his finger gives physical testimony, but still. Him, Xander. Married.

Next, his wife hasn't graduated high school yet. This isn't too bad; he's only 24, if you don't count the years when he was dead (and why would you?), and she was 18 when they married. And Dawn and Giles can't complain too much because the difference between their ages so dwarfs that between him and Madelyn as to make it look small in comparison, even if they had waited until Dawn was 29. (Dawn and Giles married. What happened to the world while he was dead? Did it go crazy?)

But Giles had known Dawn when she was, what? Eleven? Twelve? Xander's glad Madelyn wasn't born yet when he died; it'd be strange to have memories of her as a baby and then to share her bed. He tries not to think of the torch he carried for her mother for so long. The fact that he's slept with Dawn doesn't even enter into it in the same way; there are few people in Maddy's circle outside her fellow students at St. Clare's who haven't slept with her aunt. Dawn's list of conquests rivals the Tradëscan Codex in bulk.

But really, none of that matters. "In a hurry" doesn't begin to describe the way they were married, but he can't deny that the bond between them is real--and it wasn't even the mystical soulbond thing (courtesy of the Dark God), either. It's a little strange to think that this girl he hadn't really known anything about before he said "I do" is now his partner for life, but for once the idea of "forever" doesn't so much as scare him as awake in him a strong sense of determination. They'll make it work.

It had been hard for him to part with her after the honeymoon, but she had to finish her education at St. Clare's and Dawn had impressed on him the need for someone with his experience with the African field offices, which were in dire need of competent management. That didn't exactly sound like a description of him, and he had told Dawn as much, that he found it hard to believe that he could have been so irreplaceable, but he did find them a surprising mess when he finally gave in and took a two-month tour of the continent. Now he's going to Maddy's prom, and it's only another month's wait before she'll graduate and join him, to attend the University of South Africa in the fall. Dawn had pulled the necessary strings to get her admitted despite having missed the application deadline; when Maddy had sent out her college applications getting married to a man who had died before she was born had not exactly been on her radar.

Hey love, Maddy's telepathic voice intrudes on his thoughts.

Hey, he thinks back. Something wrong?

I'm fine, Maddy answers. We're waiting for you here at the airport. Alan's driving me crazy, though, afraid you're not going to get here on time. He wants me to promise that if you don't get here soon, I'll teleport you the rest of the way, or at least Persephone.

Alan is the reason that Persephone's accompanying Xander on the flight to Cleveland. While Alan claims to have a girlfriend in Texas, supposedly she isn't able to make it to the St. Clare's prom, and so he had asked various friends to help set him up with a date, ending in him taking Madelyn's vampiric half-sister.

Xander and Persephone had met up in Germany, but their flight from there had been delayed and they had hit some turbulence over the Atlantic. We should be there in three hours, he thinks, glancing at the interactive map. The prom's not until tomorrow, right?

Madelyn's answer's the telepathic equivalent of a shrug. He's afraid that she won't get enough sleep to look her best.

Xander glances over at his vampiric sister-in-law, who is asleep in the seat next to him, the hood of her sweatshirt pulled over her head. Don't worry, he tells Madelyn. Apparently her superpowers include the preternatural ability to sleep on planes.

Ooh, I want that one, Madelyn whines playfully. Do you think she'll trade?

Maybe if you ask nicely, Xander answers. There were few people on the planet interested in power who wouldn't trade their powers, whatever they be, for Madelyn's set.


	2. Chapter 2

They get into Cleveland around 10pm. Faith's there, and Xander can't get over how much older she is than he remembers her being before he died. She's flanked by two students in St. Clare's uniforms. One is his wife; the other must be the infamous Alan.

The boy examines Persephone eagerly, too eagerly if his famed Texan girlfriend is anything but a fiction. Persephone's not exactly looking her best in her sweatsuit and rumpled hair, but Alan seems to be satisfied with what he sees. Xander's old enough that the difference between Madelyn's eighteen years and Persephone's apparent age of fifteen seems like an eternity, but he can see what a boy like Alan would see in Persephone even if she's physically too young for Xander himself. Apparently, in addition to getting to live forever, the Immortal has good genes.

He can't hold the boy's lecherous gaze against Alan too badly. One, Xander was little better in general when he was eighteen; two, he's eying up Madelyn in exactly the same way right now. There's something about the way his wife looks in knee socks and a plaid skirt that makes Xander feel irrationally dirty.

Madelyn takes him in a quick embrace and by the time they break the kiss, there's quite a few heads turned, many of them with disapproving looks. Xander has to admit the schoolgirl uniform doesn't make it look very good, but screw them, she's his wife.

"Hey," Alan says to Persephone, extending his arm awkwardly. "I'm Alan."

"Persephone," Persephone answers, and purses her lips in the way that Xander's already noticed she does when she's resisting the urge to introduce herself as "Dark Queen of Azthorak."

Alan just pauses, unsure of what to say next. Xander feels for the boy; he's obviously interested in the vampire, but Xander doubts there's much an eighteen-year-old boy can do or say to impress an 800-year-old vampire, even if she does look fifteen.

On the other hand, everyone probably seems impossibly young and immature to Persephone, and Buffy being sixteen didn't seem to deter Angel the first time he saw her.

They collect their luggage, with Faith carrying most of Xander's; she might be older, but she's certainly not weak. Persephone carries her own without difficulty; Alan looks at her uncomfortably, as the fact that she's so much stronger than him doesn't leave much room for gallantry.

They load the baggage into the back of Faith's car. Alan takes the passenger seat reluctantly; clearly he'd rather sit next to Persephone, but there's no way that Xander isn't sitting with his wife, and the choice between sharing the back seat with some random hormone-driven boy or Maddy's sister is pretty much a no-brainer.

Madelyn rests her head on Xander's shoulders, and he breathes in the scent of his wife's hair. "I've missed you," she whispers in his ear.

"Me too," he says. He puts an arm around her and kisses her on the forehead. She smiles up at him.

In a little bit, Faith pulls into the hotel. Valets take their luggage and begin carrying it to the rooms followed by the five. Xander and Maddy are in room 303; Persephone's in the adjoining 304. Faith and Alan see them settled in, then Faith taps Alan's shoulder and says, "Okay, let's let them get some rest." She looks at Xander when she says "rest" and makes it sound dirty in the way only Faith can.

Alan doesn't look exactly eager to return to campus, but he follows Faith's lead nonetheless, not like he has a choice. "It was nice meeting you," he says to Persephone.

She graces him with a smile. "I'll see you tomorrow," she says, taking mercy on the boy by letting just the slightest hint of suggestiveness drip into her voice, but it's enough to light up Alan's face.

As Faith and Alan turn to leave, Maddy gives Persephone a hug and they exchange quick kisses on the cheek.

"Night, 'Sephone," she says, then grabs Xander by the shirt and pulls him into the hotel room.

As soon as the door is shut behind them, their lips are locked and their hands are all over each other. "Do you want me to leave this on?" Maddy asks impishly once they've broken a kiss. Xander glances down at the Catholic school uniform, considers the idea for a moment, then shakes his head and pulls off Madelyn's ugly red St. Clare's blazer. He begins unbuttoning the white blouse as she unbuckles his belt and unzips his fly. It's not long before, having run out of clothes to take off each other, they end up on the bed.

Tomorrow might be prom, but right now is homecoming.


	3. Chapter 3

Maddy's first thought when she wakes up is that the bed is too big, far wider than her twin bed in the room she shares at St. Clare's. Nor is it her bed in her room at her aunt and uncle's mansion in Bath.

Her second thought is the realization that there's someone in the bed with her. Her husband. Xander. It's sad that even after two months as a married woman waking up next to her husband is a strange and unfamiliar experience. She still feels more like a high school student than she does a married woman, even if she is both. She can't wait for graduation.

She disentangles herself from Xander, then makes her way into the bathroom. When she comes back out, he's awake and sitting on the bed, waiting for her. "Hey, beautiful," he says.

She sits down on his lap and kisses him.

They take a shower together. Their bodies still new and exciting to each other, they take delight in exploring them. They have sex in the shower, sure, but so too do they take time washing each other, their hands moving over flesh which is at once alien and theirs. They belong to each other.

Xander turns the water off, but they don't exit the shower. They just stand there, leaning against the tile wall, in each other's arms, and let themselves just be. Eventually, when they're mostly dry except for Maddy's hair, they get out of the shower. They don't put too much time into their appearances now; they'll be plenty of time for that later. Maddy just does the barest minimum to keep her hair manageable, and Xander's already putting on his clothes.

As soon as Xander is dressed, there's a knock on the door adjoining their room to Persephone's. "Come on in, 'Sephone," Madelyn shouts, and a second later the vampire enters, dressed in blue jeans, sneakers, black elbow-length gloves, and a scarlet corset--more or less her usual style of dress.

"So what's the plan, Sis?" Persephone asks.

Madelyn exits the bathroom and begins to get dressed. "We're due down in the spa at 10:30," she tells her half-sister. "Then the hairdresser's at one." She glances at her husband. "There's time to catch breakfast first."

Xander nods, and moves to the phone to order room service.

Once Maddy's pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans she sits down on the bed next to Persephone. "I don't know what the reaction of the other students is going to be," she warns her sister. "There's a lot who still remember the last time you were here." Before Perspehone had gotten her soul, she had posed as a St. Clare's student to get close to Madelyn--killing some of the other students in the process.

Persephone nods. "I'm used to cold shoulders."

Madelyn reaches over and takes a black-gloved hand in her own.

"Okay, food's on the way up," Xander says, sitting down on Xander's other side.

It's only five minutes before room service arrives, with two platters of ham and eggs for Maddy and Xander and some warmed pig's blood for Persephone. "It's amazing what you can get with a Council credit card," Xander observes.

Persephone arches her brow. "For what we're paying they should have slaughtered the pig fresh downstairs." She drinks her blood without another word, though.


End file.
